There’s nothing WEIRD about Biden.

The first big news story of the month was President Joe Biden’s pardoning of his son for any crimes he may have committed by selling his Dad’s name to ChiCom gang bosses and East Slavic corruptocrats.

For students of Chinese philosophy a much-discussed passage from midway through the Analects of Confucius came to mind. In Simon Leys’ translation:

The Governor of Shè declared to Confucius: “Among my people, there is a man of unbending integrity: when his father stole a sheep, he denounced him.” Confucius said: “Among my people, men of integrity do things differently: a father covers up for his son, a son covers up for his father — and there is integrity in what they do.” (Analects, 13:18.)

[Shè (葉, pronounced Shuh) was a district in the ancient state of Chŭ, in or near present-day southwest Henan Province.]

So Confucius, the great moralist, is saying we should put family before the law. That little passage has generated a lot of commentary.

For example: In his lectures on the Analects for Great Courses, Robert André LaFleur gives us that exchange from the middle of the Analects just two and a half minutes into Lecture 1 of his 24 lectures. Here are his opening remarks:

Clip: To get a sense of the teacher and his book let’s start almost literally in the middle of a text that has become known as the Analects — another translation could be the Discourses — of a man named Confucius.

Readers of the Analects are already past the halfway point when they come to a little anecdote that, in my estimation, sums up the teaching of the entire book.

The Governor of a little state named Shè is talking with Confucius …]

Much further on in his course, in Lecture 18, Prof. LaFleur returns to the passage.

[Clip: There’s always been a complex relationship in Chinese life between care for those one knows and to whom one is related in one form or another, and devotion to broader swathes of the public. Understanding that relationship is key to untangling the threads that bind large and small parts of Chinese society.

Think back to the opposing views of the Governor of Shè and Confucius in Chapter 13 of the Analects over how a young man should respond when his father steals a sheep. Many of the worst blunders readers make when interpreting Confucius’ Analects occur because they are not attentive to the seemingly contradictory message that one must protect one’s kin above all and toil on behalf of the larger community.

Those ideals are in constant tension; but understanding how they resonate, merge, and persist is central to understanding Confucius and his teaching. Governing the larger society requires balancing attention to family and public spirit. It is the greatest challenge of all in Confucius’ teaching.]

Confucius wouldn’t have seen any contradiction. In his imagination he saw society as a building of several floors, each floor supported by pillars on the floor below. The lowest level of pillars were those of filial piety and similar family-based virtues. If they were neglected the entire structure would come crashing down.

Up on the higher floors, of course, subordinates should be loyal to their superiors, Ministers of State to their ruler, and so on; but filial piety was foundational.

That schema for human society, or something approximating it, prevailed almost everywhere and everywhen up to the late middle ages, when Northwest Europe took the turn to what social anthropologist Joseph Henrich calls the WEIRD model: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic.

The older, clannish, kin-centered schema still prevails in much of the world — certainly in what we call the Third World — and there are still pockets of it nested in among the general WEIRDness of the modern West, generating what it always generates: lies, lawlessness, and corruption.

In the Biden family, for instance. There ain’t nothing WEIRD about Joe.

One who understands.

Here’s a guy who understands what I said there.

People from different nations with different circumstances, histories, beliefs and traditions will — by definition — hold very different conceptions of good government, some irreconcilably opposed to our own. It has been said that a principal cause of Rome’s fall was that “many men who never knew republican life and did not care for it … became Roman citizens.” Why then do we Americans continue to import millions upon millions who have never known republican life and do not care for it? In doing so, we do not uphold our Founding creed; we hasten and enable its oblivion.

That was Michael Anton, posting at the Unz Review in March 2016. Later that year Anton published, this time in the Claremont Review of Books, “The Flight 93 Election,” a landmark essay often credited with helping Donald Trump win that year’s Presidential election.

Anton served for a year on Trump 45’s National Security Council, resigning when World Saver-in-Chief John Bolton took over the NSC. He has since made a living writing and lecturing.

December 8th Trump announced that Anton would be Director of Policy Planning in the Trump 47 State Department.

Trump noted that Anton served the last eight years “explaining what an America First foreign policy truly means.” [“Trump names several picks for State Department roles,” The Hill, December 8th 2024.]

Given the disagreements in Trump 45, it is highly unlikely that John Bolton will be appointed to any position in Trump 47. With any luck Michael Anton will be “explaining what an America First foreign policy truly means” to Trump and his people clear through to January 2029. Fingers crossed …

Tourists of the Caribbean.

At a party earlier this year Mrs Derbyshire got chatting to a friend of a friend (male, single, sixtyish) who winters in Belize. He gave a glowing account of the place, capturing my lady’s attention. She got it into her head that it would be fun to take a brief winter vacation in Belize.

I knew nothing at all about the place. Come on: How much do you know?

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Wikipedia told me that Belize was British Honduras until attaining independence in 1981. Thus encouraged, I tried to look up the colony in my grandfather’s faithful 1922 Atlas-Guide to the British Commonwealth of Nations & Foreign Countries. They gave it a very short description: the shortest of any territory, I think.

BRITISH HONDURAS. — The staple products are mahogany, logwood, etc. Chiccle, the basis of chewing gum, is exported, as are various tropical fruits.

That was it. No further economic stats, no geographical or demographic ones at all.

I checked with the State Department website.

Belize Travel Advisory. Violent crime — such as sexual assault, home invasions, armed robberies, and murder — are common even during daylight hours and in tourist areas …

Not very encouraging. The Mrs had set her heart on a Belize trip, though, and … happy wife, happy life. I booked us on an 8-day early-December tour with Intrepid, a well-reviewed Australian group-tour firm.

It was indeed a happy experience, taking in a side trip to Guatemala. I can now tick off two more nations on my been-there list. We encountered no crime, Intrepid having made sure to keep us well clear of gang-controlled areas. Laid-on transportation was timely and safe and the food was OK, although “Caribbean” was, and still is, well down on my list of favorite cuisines.

The accommodations were likewise OK. Downside: Local hostelries seem to operate on a one-in-three rule. Of your room’s shower, safe, and TV, only one will be in working order. Belize would benefit from an AHLA missionary endeavor.

The fun of the thing was principally social. There were six of us in our tour group:

• Mr & Mrs Derbyshire, the only married couple.
• Two young lovers from Zurich, fluent in English but conversing with each other in Swiss-German.
• Two American ladies not formerly known to each other, one from each coast, members of that mighty host of middle-aged females who get great pleasure from tours to exotic places but whose menfolk can’t see the point.

It was a cheerful group and we all got on very well. The conviviality was much helped by the tour guide, Lorenzo, who was everything a tour guide should be: unfailingly knowledgeable and good-humored, dealing with minor crises briskly and efficiently, and laughing at everyone’s jokes, even mine.

So altogether, a pretty nice winter break.

Belizian charms.

The social pleasures aside, I can’t say I found Belize and Guatemala very fascinating. I had already seen all the Mayan ruins I ever wanted to see. A half-dozen more added nothing to my understanding.

It crossed my mind, in fact, that were I not so uxorious I would likely have joined that counter-host of menfolk who can’t see the point. An hour or so into a trek through the Guatemalan jungle I could sense my inner Victor Meldrew stirring.

Not that Belize is without its charms. There is a lingering Britishness, for example, that of course touched my heart. Belize bankotes still bear an image of the late Queen Elizabeth the Second; and the lobby of the premier hotel in San Ignacio is proudly decorated with a photographic record of Her Majesty’s visit there in 1994.

Belizians say “roundabout,” not “traffic circle”; and the local Creole is British-English-based. Sample proverb:

Parson christen e pikni fus.

“The parson christens his own child first,” i.e. charity begins at home.

That’s all under threat, of course. Belize is a tiny place, less than 9,000 square miles — just a tad bigger than New Jersey. The population is tiny, too, though: 400 thousand and change. (New Jersey has nine and a half million.) That yields a low population density: 47 people to the square mile.

The population-density figures for next-door Guatemala and Mexico are 430 and 170 per square mile. Water will find its level: Belizians grumble that it’s increasingly hard to get along without knowing Spanish.

There is also a big Mennonite — Amish, approximately — population; you see their horses and buggies everywhere (although some of their communities have upgraded to automobiles). They read their Bible in German but otherwise speak mostly Spanish.

For nonconformists there’s a geopolitical point in Belize’s favor: she is one of just twelve nations that recognize the government in Taiwan as representing the Republic of China. I guess the ChiComs don’t think it’s worth the trouble to bully or bribe Belize into the majority. (There is actually a Taiwan Street in downtown Belize City.)

So: a small, warm, poor, underpopulated country in a volatile neighborhood. A lot of Americans have, like Mrs Derbyshire’s original informant, been buying property there for winter habitation. I don’t think I’ll be joining them, but we enjoyed our visit to their country. I wish the Belizians well with all my heart.

The death of print media.

A depressing thing about airports today is the absence of print media for sale.

With a considerable wait to sit through at Belize’s international airport, I went looking for a newspaper or magazine to read. There weren’t any.

Desperate to keep my mind active, I tallied the 21 retail outlets serving the 13 departure gates.

• 2 selling souvenirs, candy, and liquor.
• 5 selling souvenirs and candy but no liquor
• 2 selling souvenirs only
• 3 selling liquor only
• 1 selling clothes (T-shirts, nightwear)
• 4 selling fast food
• 1 selling fast food and souvenirs
• 2 table-service restaurants
• 1 bar

OK, maybe Belize doesn’t lead the world in literacy, but … not even a newspaper?

Our own airports are headed the same way. At a stopover in Philadelphia I did manage to locate a newsstand, but even there it was slim pickings.

It’s useless to grumble, of course. The world changes; and right now it’s changing in a direction hostile to words printed on paper. Eh: I still, for a while longer, have my New York Post to read over breakfast.

Who’s taking snuff?

I’m late with this one, for which I apologize. It arose from a segment in my September Diary in which I wrote about the changing fortunes of nicotine.

Including snuff. I noted that there still seem to be snuff-takers, but … who are they?

A reader set me straight.

You wanted to know if anyone still takes it: sure, Orthodox Jews. Smoking is forbidden on the Sabbath, and so snuff-taking was very common back in the day. Not so common anymore, but it’s still done by the older set, and by younger people trying to be nostalgic for things they never actually did. It’s even more common on Yom Kippur, when both smoking and eating are forbidden, and snuff is about the only thing that can be ingested.

The only tobacco I’ve ever had in my life was a handful of times I’ve had pinches of snuff in synagogue. It did nothing for me — I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to be doing. I do remember that I was scandalously young at the time …

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There’s even an old Jewish joke: The rabbis say the world rests on three pillars: Study of Torah, the Temple service, and acts of kindness to others. The joke goes that after the Temple was destroyed, the three pillars came to God and asked what will happen to them.

“Oh, don’t worry,” answered God. “The Jewish people will build synagogues, and they will pray as a substitute for the Temple service and the rabbi will speak on the Torah as study.”

“But what about me?” asked Acts-of-Kindness. “Not a problem,” smiled God. “In the middle of the rabbi’s sermon, each congregant will turn to his neighbor and say, ‘Here, have a pinch of snuff!'”

Playing that back to a friend, he marveled that: “There’s some real colorful history and tradition there! Pity you could never make a movie about it.”

Me, a little slow on the uptake: “Why not?”

He: “Because that would be a snuff movie, duh!”

A valediction.

No Math Corner this month, reader. In its place, a valediction.

This is my last monthly diary. It is number 250, those numbers stretching back across 24 years. (There were not always twelve to the year.) That’s a nice neat number to end on. That it falls on a December doubles the nice-neatness.

Thank you for reading across these many years, and for your emails and donations. Radio Derb podcast and transcript will continue to appear weekly as usual.

Should you still feel in need of a monthly extra dose of my ramblings I shall be writing a regular column for Chronicles magazine, starting with the February issue, which of course will appear at the end of January. If you don’t currently subscribe to Chronicles I urge you to do so. It’s an excellent magazine; I’ve been contributing from the very beginning of this century, January 2000.

And if you find yourself feeling nostalgic about my Math Corner, there are worked solutions to 117 of them here. I’m sorry 117 isn’t as nice’n’neat as the other numbers in this segment. It doesn’t even have an entry in David Wells’ Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers. But that’s numbers for you: they’re just fundamentally unruly.

Happy New Year!